On The Upswing

So, I think we can safely say that we are all finally healthy (knock on wood).  Dad is no longer banished to the guest room to sleep because he has stopped coughing up a lung and he has returned to riding.  I am well rested enough that I am no longer grumpy.  And mom is just happy to have everyone feeling better.

Our week was pretty low keyed but Friday mom and I went to our first ever Girl Scout Cookie Rally.  It was pretty danged awesome- it was a big dance party and my Daisy troop spent the evening busting out our most cool dance moves and getting amped up to sell cookies.  It went until 8 but mom and her two mom volunteers were ready to call it a night at 7:30.

Even though everyone was feeling better, our weekend was kind of lame.  Well, mom and dad's weekend was lame.  Mine kind of rocked.  Dad's team at work is having major issues so he to go into work on Saturday.  Mom and I had a lazy morning and then headed down to the zoo for a few hours. It was another great visit with all kinds of fun animal stuff.  We got to watch the orangutans and gorillas get their afternoon snack, we got to talk to the zoo keepers for the elephants and tapirs.  We learned about how the zoo keepers had to do "mouth to snout" breathing to save a new born tapir, then we got to feed the lorikeets.  That was really cool except there were so many people in there with us that the birds were too full to eat much.  

And then as if our day wasn't exciting enough, we got to see the 7 month old lion cubs.  They were adorable and I could have stayed there all day.

On Sunday, it was mom 's turn to work.  It was a nice, long day of patients and paperwork.  There really isn't a better way to spend a Sunday.
Dad and I made the most of a beautiful day and headed out to the creek behind our house.  We started out by looking for bugs but found a lot of ice instead- which I loved more than bugs.

We wrapped up our week with family movie night and chocolate brownies.  So, it wasn't the most exciting of weeks but we are just happy to be feeling better all around.  I'm sure next weekend will be much better!

Recovery Week

If last week was the week from hell, this week was only the week from purgatory.  A small improvement but still a bit rough.  Dad is making a slow rebound but you know he was really sick when he has to take an entire week off from riding.  He ventured out for a short ride on Saturday and it knocked him out for the rest of the day.  We will be glad to get this particular virus out of the house!

My week was slightly better.  I made it back to school but was pretty tired all week.  I had swimming lessons on Tuesday and it was great because the other two girls weren't there so I had a private lesson.  I started learning the "dolphin kick" and my instructor started me on the butterfly stroke too.  I loved it! I think it made my back muscles really sore though because I spent the next 3 days with the back of my hand against my forward, sighing about how much my back hurt.  Boo-hoo.  Mom did a very thorough assessment (not!) and determined that I would live, so no sympathy there.

Thursday, I had Girl Scouts.  Mom, Ms. Chris and Ms. Young (who was hosting) were all so tired and disorganized that our meeting consisted of 12 girls taking over the basement and acting like wild women for an hour and 15 minutes.  IT WAS AWESOME!

Friday could not come soon enough.  I had the day off but mom had to work a 1/2 day so off to day camp I went.  She picked me up at noon and we went to see the movie Wreck-it Ralph.  I loved it because it was about video games, candy and car racing.  What more could a girl want?  And to make it even better.....my tooth fell out!  My front tooth has been hanging on and hanging on for at least 6 weeks and we thought it would never fall out.  Apparently, I just wasn't taking big enough breaths because that is about all it took for it to finally let go.  We made a quick trip to the bathroom to rinse up and I told everyone within ear shot what had happened.  Everyone was so excited.  Mom was super excited too because it finally got my mind off my back pain and onto my awesome tooth.

After the movie, we headed to my allergy doctor for our annual check in.  It was a really productive visit.  The doctor put a big blob of peanut butter on my arm and watched for reactions.  Since I had none, I am now free to eat where ever I want in the cafeteria and not just at the "nut free" table.  I kind of like the "nut free" table though so who knows.  I go back in a month for another skin test and to start oral challenges- a little nerve wracking but exciting too!

Saturday was quiet but the weather was amazing- 55 degrees and clear blue skies so we headed to the park for awhile and then mom and I met my friend Sophia and her mom at the Wildlife Museum for the afternoon.

Sunday was another beautiful day, so we headed down to a new park near our house to feed the ducks.  Have you ever seen a duck ice skate?  It's pretty funny!

Mom is still loving her Subaru- so much so that I'm tired of hearing about it.  But, it seems she has started a trend.  Ms. Chris, her co Daisy Troop leader was on the hunt for a new car and loved mom's Subaru so much, she went out and bought one for herself.  Our neighbors 3 houses down have a brand new grey one sitting in their garage and our across the street neighbor ( mom thinks the wife might be a bit of a stalker but that is for another post) pulled a brand new white Subaru Outback into their garage.  I knew mom and dad were cool but I didn't realize what trend setters they are!

Have a great week!

The Week From Hell

Well, this has been a stellar week for us!  We were going to spare you all the gory details, but really, where is the fun in that!?

So, we left off last Sunday in pretty high spirits from a really great vacation, but if you recall, we weren't quite ready for it to end.  So we added another week to it.  Unfortunately, it was not a fun week.  I went to bed Sunday with a little scratchy throat and woke Monday with a low grade fever.  Since Dad had just been off with me for two weeks, mom pulled sick duty, thinking I would be heading back to school on Tuesday.  No such luck.  I spent the rest of the week at home on the couch with a fever of 102 and a stuffy head.  To make matters worse, dad had to go out of town for work on Wednesday morning and didn't come home until Friday afternoon which means mom DID NOT SET FOOT OUT OF THE HOUSE FOR 5 DAYS.  And to make matters even worser, dad was unbelievable sick when he got home Friday.  He thought for sure he was going to die in his hotel room Thursday night and the cleaning lady would find him dead, wearing all his clothes, with all the blankets  piled on and the heat turned up as high as it would go.  Do you know what you do when you are home for 5 days straight?  It involves a lot of TV, not good TV either (think Honey Boo-Boo) and ends with mom making you watch her wedding video.  Good times in the Goedel house.  So far, mom has dodged the sick bullet (although writing that sentence probably just jinxed her), mainly by keeping a minimum of 50' between her and us and yelling at us to cough/sneeze into our elbows while throwing hand sanitizer in our general direction.  It has not been pretty and mom was very anxious to get back to work this week and treat "healthy" people!

So, we are finally back on the mend and I headed back to school today, mom and dad back to work even though dad probably could have used another day.

On the plus side of things, mom FINALLY got her Subaru!  She had to let it sit in the garage for 5 days because I was too sick to go anywhere.  She did spend some time sitting in it and taking in the "new car smell" or just standing in the garage staring at it.  Another happy reason to go to work on Monday- she finally gets to drive it!  Compared to her X-terra, which she loved, the Subi is kind of complicated with all kinds of buttons and gadgets but we are figuring it out and waiting for the next snow storm to test out our all wheel drive.

So, that's about it for our week.  I hope we have better stuff to report next week.  Stay healthy everyone!

Happy New Year!

Aaahh- so another year has come and gone with many adventures.  We decided to ring in the new year by actually leaving the house AND celebrating with friends.  We even got a teensy bit dressed up.  It was so unlike us and we surprised ourselves by having a good time!

We headed over to my friend Cami's house and I got to play with two of my favorite friends all night long.

Mom broke out the Walker Party Hats at about 11 PM and everyone actually wore them!  Mom was so very happy to see the tradition continue.

We all made it until midnight and watched the ball drop and drank our champagne.  We finally headed home and got to bed around 1AM and mom and dad were miserable the next day.  They didn't drink but, man, when you don't see 1 AM unless you are in the emergency room with me, it makes for a rough next day.

Normally, on New Year's Day, we like to go for a hike and be out in nature because mom thinks it brings good juju to the upcoming year but since it was a high of 20 degrees, we had to find another way to bring good vibes in.  So, we spent the day putting away Christmas decorations, cleaning and finally test driving new cars for mom.  We ended up at the Subaru dealership, test drove a pretty cool 2013 Outback and decided to buy one.  So we went back on Wednesday, signed our life away for the next four years and were hoping to walk away with a new car.  Unfortunately, our sales kid ( he couldn't have been more than 25) couldn't give us a straight answer as to when our car was going to be here.  We were hoping to have pictures to post, but we still don't have a car.  Hopefully, by the next blog post, we will have it.  Otherwise, mom is going unleash her "I'm so disappointed in you" mom speech on the sales kid.  He won't know what hit him.

Mom had to work the rest of the week, so  I had my friend Collin over for a play date on Thursday and then dad and I headed out to the Wildlife Museum on Friday.

On Saturday, it finally got above freezing and was an amazingly gorgeous day with clear blue skies, no wind and bright sun shine.  We decided it was time to head out for our New Year's hike.  It made everyone happy and now we are sure the New Year will be good.

We wrapped up our 17 day vacation on Sunday with a trip to Costco, so it was pretty quiet.  We are all a little bummed to be heading back to the cold, cruel reality of work, but mom and dad's resolution is to play the lottery more.  Then we can be on permanent vacation!
We wish everyone a healthy, happy,  prosperous New Year!